Letters from John Wesley Hetherington to his Family, 1916-1918 - Part 2

with sovereigns,  notes, & coppers till we & the stallholders
didn't know where we were. We observed at various places
squads of German prisoners at work with French guards
over them, and it afforded us some measure of satisfaction.
It must be rather humiliating to the some of the big
Germans to have to be under the bayonet of a much smaller
chap as most of French soldiers were. It is astonishing
what an affect one loaded rifle has once a squad of
unarmed men. The Germans we passed scrutinised us very
closely, doubtless wondering what sort of animals we were,
and I'm quite sure one chaps weighed them up just as
closely with a view towards a closer acquaintance of their
kith & kin Although March is rather early an the year
for observing this country at its best, yet we all agreed
that France knocked the bottom out of Egypt, at its
best any old time, and it was definitely decided that
this country "would do us".
We didn't touch Paris but skirted round it much to our
disappointment. Perhaps it was just as well for us & Paris
too as our crowd aren't Angels by any stretch of
imagination, so they let us see the top of the Eiffel Tower in the
distance. There were great demands for souvenirs at all
the towns & railway stations we passed through, and badges
were tossing about ad lib.
One things we all noticed was the absence of the younger
men of France, plenty of women & boys but all the men of
fighting age, except perhaps the agriculturalists, were
in uniform, and I have seen men leaving the

streets with uniform & steel helmets on.
 

The French soldiers look very neat in their blue-
grey uniform. Their steel helmets are much nicer than
ours in appearance though the authorities say ours are the
better helmet for preventing casualties. Our helmets seem to
be made on the good old dreadnought plan and old Dick
Wilkinson of C /ton Colliery must have made the pattern for
them. The stocks of boiler plate must be low now in
the old country & when the war is over I would suggest
a slight alteration to them to transform them into egg pens
or steer domes for boilers. There are few things on the boiler
plate line you couldn't make out of our helmets & I'm afraid
we apply some peculiar titles to them as the boys all look
like Chows from Hong Kong in them. There is a joke here
that the authorities here issued a long list of utensils
that they must not be used in lieu of. We daren't spoil
the new ones but wait till we come across a few second
hand a good cook could do wonders with s halfdoz of them.
Well that's enough about the latest in hats, wish could post you one.
We get finally dumped down in a nice farming locality & were
billeted in a barn, quite "bosker" to be on straw after the
months stretched on sand. You haven't any idea how hard
sand can be till you've tossed & turned a few times on it.
Give me straw every time for preference. The people were very
nice & clean too quite refreshing to look upon after so much
black brown & yellow mixture, and to me it seemed like
nearing Home to see the rosy cheeks of the kiddies.
The shopkeepers were reasonable in their charges, not like
the Greeks who rob you blind, and it is possible to
 

get a feed of eggs (real eggs too not the canary kind tell
Mother) & coffee for a modest sum, and such coffee! The
French people don't put the coffee itself into the pot but
into a fine cloth bag suspended from the lid, the lid itself
has the top part shaped like a cup & they pour the hot
water through the coffee. Vous savez? Of course this cloth
bad remains suspended in the liquid. Anyway they can
make coffee here, but they can't make tea for nuts. So the
scores are even all round.
We had a Home regiment billeted near us, made up from the
Public School of England, with a Lord for a Colonel & an
Honorable for Adjutant etc, etc such a dear lot of chaps
don't you know! They appear to be in cold storage here for
the next Lord Mayors show or something like that. Oh! yes
they've we been in the trenchs, seen a bit of strafing too
What? Do they wear sleeping socks? Ask another.
Anyway I compared them with our chaps when they left the
Peninsula and I can only surmise, they haven't seen much
war yet. As for Lord Lot So & the Hond somewhat, out fellows
saluted them - when they didn't forget.
While billeted here I saw a Lockel aeroplane come down
quite near. The machine was quite new & in beautiful order.
Engine trouble brought him down. Our aircraft men held
a preliminary post mortem on the machine & gave it the "glad
eye." Doubtless they found a nice poosty place for it.
Well we moved further along towards Berlin billeted billeted
behind a duty "Estimanet" or Pub with a dirty backyard
and a dirty loft to sleep in. If you woke up through the

 

night you found rats steeply chasing all over you.
We had the "rats" all right I tell you.
This was in  a part where the Huns had met our troops and
the graves dotted about the fields at the back told there
own tale. One poor chap of the Rifles had been hit & tried
to reach the place where we were billeted, but died just out
from the yard. The graves are all marked & fenced around
& one a little further over the field was planted with daisies
in the form of a cross & looked very nice.
After a short stay at this place where we had a breaking in
for mud & rain we shifted again. I must not forget to mention
the bathing sheds they have near these billeting places. Talk
about Gallipoli or Lemnos, I'm satisfied we weren't any where
near civilization there. You walk in & receive a clean outfit
of shirt etc, then you turn your tunic & trousers over to be
ironed, and meanwhile you get under a hot shower bath.
You come out without the shadow of a "chat" on you & that means
something I tell you, when you've been scratching day in day,
out for weeks past. Some Country this- what?
Now our chaps are in trenches, and we are in behind, and well behind.
too not like Anzac where you walked out the back door to talk to,
Johnny Turk. If it were not for the big guns one would scarcely think
there was a was on. We passed through some small towns on the
last trek though that bore signs of war sure enough. Walls were
smallpocked with bullet holes, and two large churches I've
passed had it roofs windows or doors remaining. One had
been used as a machine gun tower by the Huns until our
artillery drove them from it, then they burnt the place out
 

when they were forced to leave. There are many people in
mourning of course but the people of France are remarkable cheery
and carry their troubles with a light heart. We don't talk much
about the war here to strangers as there are a good few spies hanging
round, and there are notices in all the "Estimanets" (pubs) warning all
against discussing any military topics, and these notices are also
and every railway carriage, station, halls etc.
I've just waded through a parcel of papers you've sent and have
read all about the riot and the closing of the pubs. It makes
a chap sick to read all that rot about overworking the troops
in Camp.  Wait till they reach here they'll know all about their 40
hours drill, etc. Not arf!  they won't. If they had been under the
bombardment we had this last week with gas, etc, hanging about
all the sting would have gone out of them, 40½ hours, these chaps
here would do it on their heads & smile.
The previous crowd who played up at Liverpool the 13^th Reinfts are
quiet as a girls school now. The general opinion of the last riot,
done among the chaps here is that they ought to send them somewhere
near where the big shells drop for ½ an hour not 40½, and that
would settle it all. The pubs here are only open 11 am to 1 pm and
6 pm to 8 pm, four hours a day. The Military Mounted Police ride
round & see they do close to at these hours. If a wineseller, or
estimenet keeper offends, the place is put "out of Bounds" to all
troops for so long & on the 2nd  offence the licence may be cancelled.
And l read a letter on the Sydney D.S. a chap complaining that
they only had 4 days final leave, bless my heart, how much did
we have? It makes us all sick to read some of the staff
After yon 8 months on the Peninsula our leave was only 3 percent
of the Battn, for 7 hours daily. I wonder whether they really

 

here crosses and two old soldiers are always in attendance.
keeping the place tidy. One of the crosses bear the words In Memory
of - W. York Regt, and below, "One of the best".
It is quite a large plot of ground and as I say it is almost and
impossibility to name a regiment not represented.
We are now to get leave for England, 10 days I think, & we are
all wondering how one turn stands as we only go out one day
two the next, the one again, two the next that price that
percentage at Liverpool. My turn is a good bit back I think
as my stay in hospital puts me back. Puzzle! When will
the 13^th Reint get theirs? I haven't had many letters lately
probably because I don't deserve them. Joe complains he doesn't hear
from you often & wishes me to remind you he's still in England.
I still have to buck up and write to my Burwood friends or I
shall lose track altogether. I enjoy Grit still & also the
papers. We get the English papers a day old that suits me as
you will guess. I follow Mr. Francis Wilsons progress closely
& also tell the doings re the 6 oclock agitation
Did you ever receive the Maltese sandals I sent long ago?
Tell Mother I'm O.K. through & through hope to survive the
last lap if Fritzy isn't too greedy. The countryside is
just putting on is spring beauty and we are in a quiet part
of the line so we can appreciate it.
Remember me to all I'm acquaint with T ell Mr Strongman
I'll be writing him early & also Mr Wilson
Yours with love to all
Wes/.
 

Armoures
Quarter Master Sergeant
 1003 2nd Battalion
1st Infantry Brigade
A.F.S.I

[*36*]
FRANCE
MAY 16/16
Dear Bro Fred
I must again fall into line to give you news
of how it fares with we & us
I have just been wading through the last
arrivals in the way of newspapers sent by
you and have read all the Liverpool war
news. It makes a chap feel like going back
and giving there some of his mind. I'd be
rather afraid of  rd running amuck if I
started telling any of them off. No license
would be a picnic to what I'd have to say
to such wasters. Amid all the yards of trash
& piffle I've read only one sensible letter
appeared & the author was right in saying
that instead of sacking or dismissing that
1000 men they should have been put aboard
ship and sent to Egypt and he would have
been still further right if he had suggested 
they be sent right on to us. They'll be
marked men when they to get here and it will
pay them to sing very small for all ranks aree
disgusted at their behaviour.
It is absolutely a waste of time to blame this or
that for their conduct though to be sure the booze
plays a big part, but to blame the Camp
Commandant or any other authority (military) 

to like whipping the cat. Shell is what
they want, and I guarantee that after half
an hours experience they wouldn't take any
40 hour nonsense. It makes my blood
boil when I remember the plight the original
crowd were in at the end of one of those tiring
days in Egypt when we were drilled or marched
all day with packs in the sand & heat.
And then I remember how they looked when they
came back to Lemnos in September, and were
too weak to reach Camp dragging themselves in
by two or threes, one company being only 30 strong
and without an officer left in the Company.
They had been seven months under shell most
of the time in trenches, had been in the landing, the
19th of May attack & Lone Pine charge. Yet
there wasn't any talk of strike and they
arrived in Lemnos to a flooded camp where
the cooks couldd scarcely manage to boil a
drop of water to make tea with and some men
had tents & some hadn't, for the first call on
tents his with the hospitals and there was a
great demand albi accommodation for the wounded
after the Suvla & Lone Pine Stunts.
I've heard men say here that they would have
got into them without mercy if they had been
on picket duty in Sydney that night.
There's too much molly-coddling and glorifying
too much interference by politician of the
Orchard stamp. Why don't some
 

of these "Soldiers friend" politicians try to
run a camp with boozy soldiers in it?
We are cleared off the street here at 8-30 pm
the men in reserve billets live, eat & sleep in
their equipment and when in trenches they
are not allowed to sleep at all at night, and
they are not allowed any blankets in trenches.
So send your brave men along, and they'll find
barbed wire a tougher proposition than a
pub cellar or a plate glass window, and
they'll also find Fritzy a trickier individual
than a Camp Commandant for Fritz hits back
and sometimes hits first.
Now I've eased my safety valve a bit I'll
try to work at normal pressure again.
Well we've had nothing very startling here, at least
I must say that, for if the top of the moon fell
in and we mentioned it the censor might stroke
it out for fear it was giving away some new stunt
or betraying some "fact of military importance."
So I must follow a particular groove and
take about the weather in Sydney or the price
of eggs in France, and even this latter might
be eyed with suspicion in these days of
restriction of prices. Of course I mustn't say
where we are, for fear Fritzy should find
out. He doesn't know where we are not
arf! I'll bet he know more than I do.